I spent some time today wandering around this year’s Hempfest. I’ve avoided this particular Seattle festival for the past few years I’ve been down here, mostly because of my personal opinions regarding pot. Today, though, I had nothing else planned, and figured it might be worth wandering down with my camera for some peoplewatching.
As for the event itself…well, I can’t honestly say I was very surprised by the attendant crowds. Virtually every stereotype imaginable when dealing with the hemp/pot communities was there, plus all the requisite political hangers-on. Stoners, hippies, thugs, freaks, wierdos, Democrats, Libertarians, Socialists — you name it, that subculture was represented somewhere. Not to mention the ultra-right-wing religious proselytizers.
Is it any wonder so many people have such a dim view of Christianity when these bigoted idiots are the most visible representatives of the religion most of the time? I’ll give them points for perseverance, but that’s about it.
I didn’t bother to listen to any of the speakers I passed on the various stages, and for the most part, none of the few bands that were playing when I wandered by caught my ear enough for me to stop and listen. I did manage to catch a few minutes of a bellydancing performance on one of the stages, though.
I only ended up sticking around for a couple hours, though, as — speaking of stereotypes — today’s cloudy skies finally started raining. It wasn’t enough rain to really be that much of a bother, but as I didn’t have anything along with me to protect the camera, I decided it was time enough to find my way home. Besides, walking through another thick cloud of marijuana smoke every few minutes was starting to get to be a bit much for me.
All in all, not a bad afternoon, though. Had the weather been a bit better, I probably would have stuck around a bit longer and taken a few more pictures. I’m trying to get over an ingrained resistance to taking pictures of random people, and festivals like this can be a good place to work on that. It’s not an easy thing for me to do, as I’m always at some level afraid that whoever I’m aiming the camera at will get offended, or make the assumption that I’m some sort of creepy voyeuristic freak, or some such thing, but as “still lifes” and buildings get a bit boring after a while, I’m going to keep working on it.
iTunes: “My Mind is My Enemy (20,00 Volts of Stimulation Focused)” by Khan, Praga from the album My Mind is My Enemy/Luv U Still (1998, 4:12).